Office Politics

[Aqua Letifer]

So I mentioned in another thread that my office is now required to read White Fragility. Copies were ordered for us and we have to talk about it in every all-staff meeting for the foreseeable future.

I should mention that I was completely checked out this past January, nevermind now. So in the words of my POC bretheren, I am no longer keeping it real.

We had a departmental meeting to discuss the first few chapters of the book and how it relates to office inequality, white privilege, and the George Floyd case. I mean no shit, this was the topic of a staff meeting.

My team consists of a Colombian woman who everyone knows can't do her job worth a damn, a white woman who should have retired in the 90s, a guy who has ties to Eastern Germany and me, the most Aryan-looking guy in the company. We all went around and gave our honest comments about the literature.

Our department head, who tried to get me fired a month ago, noticed I was not actively participating in the discussion, and asked me for my thoughts.

I said that I have to respectfully disagree with my peers. Oh man, @Horace , you would have LOVED to be in on that Skype call. This was it! the racism just beneath the surface: they were lucky enough to experience it first-hand! Now was the time for them to stand up for what is Right and knock me down! Colombian lady was, I think, drooling.

They asked me what I disagreed with in particular. I said (very much paraphrasing, but this was the gist and the tone):

"Well, you all mentioned that you felt raising awareness about the issue of white privilege was important, and that we need to be more vocal about inequalities. I couldn't possibly disagree more. This problem is so pervasive in American life, and so problematic, especially to the people who work here, that I'm sorry to say that 'raising awareness' is a sick joke to me. Frankly it strikes me as tone-deaf, ignorant, naive, and disgusting. That suggestion disgusts me. It's a white person's answer. We need a review panel to assess the level of subconscious racism here. I mean we have how many POC on staff, and who are the department heads here? The whites, man, the whites. How convenient for them to raise awareness, that way they never have to address their own racist positions of power! We need sensitivity training for not only every white on staff, but also our white HR director. We need to address the institutional racism here with real action and we need to do it today."

[Copper]

Those white people are awful.

[Catseye3]

What was the response?

[Horace]

I've been running through my head my response should I ever be put on the spot like that. I intend to express my contempt via a ridiculous satire of how awful white people are, if it ever comes to it. I am confident that I can make my point right out loud and it will be invisible against the backdrop of the heartfelt noises the True Believers are making.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Catseye3 said in Office Politics:

What was the response?

Department head was flustered, but because of where I work I honestly don't think she knew the game I was playing. So she thanked me for my comments and we moved on. I stayed quiet for the rest of the meeting. Whatever. I hear back about an interview this afternoon.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Horace said in Office Politics:

I've been running through my head my response should I ever be put on the spot like that. I intend to express my contempt via a ridiculous satire of how awful white people are, if it ever comes to it. I am confident that I can make my point right out loud and it will be invisible against the backdrop of the heartfelt noises the True Believers are making.

If I had to or wanted to actually stay here long-term, I'd probably choose a different tack. But because I'm doing everything I can to leave, I figured, hey, might as well use this farce to imply the general truth that my co-workers are ignorant and that my boss is a tyrant.

[Catseye3]

Having not heretofore bothered to check out this White Fragility opus, I just looked at its Amazon page. I couldn't finish reading the blurb. I quit right after "the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’.

I'm thinking I have been somewhat clueless about the true bill around here. This book is NUMBER ONE in the Amazon charts. Has 1,777 ratings with 4.5 stars.

Holy toledo.

[Horace]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Office Politics:

@Horace said in Office Politics:

I've been running through my head my response should I ever be put on the spot like that. I intend to express my contempt via a ridiculous satire of how awful white people are, if it ever comes to it. I am confident that I can make my point right out loud and it will be invisible against the backdrop of the heartfelt noises the True Believers are making.

If I had to or wanted to actually stay here long-term, I'd probably choose a different tack. But because I'm doing everything I can to leave, I figured, hey, might as well use this farce to imply the general truth that my co-workers are ignorant and that my boss is a tyrant.

Yeah I barely have to veer into exaggeration, come to think of it. I can just flat out say that I think white people are by and large imbeciles these days.

[Mik]

While it is a bit far fetched, the closest thing to what is happening now is if the Jews themselves had initiated and run the Holocaust because the Germans told them they were all bad.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Mik said in Office Politics:

While it is a bit far fetched, the closest thing to what is happening now is if the Jews themselves had initiated and run the Holocaust because the Germans told them they were all bad.

Solzhenitsyn. It's basically his story exactly. We're just at the start of it is all.

[Doctor Phibes]

If this is honestly the worst thing to happen to you at work, you're lucky indeed.

There's a reason they call it work rather than fun, and pay you to come in rather than charge admission.

My boss has an enormous picture of the Kool-Aid guy on his shelf to remind him of unspecified things which I won't go into.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Office Politics:

If this is honestly the worst thing to happen to you at work, you're lucky indeed.

There's a reason they call it work rather than fun, and pay you to come in rather than charge admission.

My boss has an enormous picture of the Kool-Aid guy on his shelf to remind him of unspecified things which I won't go into.

It's not the worst thing, not by far. It's just the latest thing that has to do with things we've spoken about here.

[89th]

@Aqua-Letifer That was awesome, but not surprising. "So in the words of my POC bretheren, I am no longer keeping it real."

[Doctor Phibes]

Aqua, you're going to be running that company 6 months from now.

[Aqua Letifer]

Actually I think we're getting absorbed by another one. We'll see what happens.

[taiwan_girl]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Office Politics:

Actually I think we're getting absorbed by another one. We'll see what happens.

So, I think you will be able to run both of them!!!

[LuFins Dad]

Ok. I think we need to start a TNCR Book Club with a meeting every Tuesday. White Fragility will be the first book. Aqua, would you mind leading the first book since you are already reading it?

What chapters should we have read for the first meeting?

[Aqua Letifer]

@taiwan_girl said in Office Politics:

@Aqua-Letifer said in Office Politics:

Actually I think we're getting absorbed by another one. We'll see what happens.

So, I think you will be able to run both of them!!!

Believe it or not but I've managed a team before, and it was awesome. The situation was a bit crap because not only was I directly responsible for my team's output, I also had no managerial authority. But my co-workers knew their stuff so all I did was help them do their work when they got swamped. They got help when they needed it, I got to not get bored by doing different stuff every day, and the work got done. My manager said it was the best team he ever had. I agree although that had very little to do with me.

I'd be an absolutely crap manager under normal circumstances. I care about producing interesting work, not being responsible for others. Because I don't care about managing nincompoops or bad personalities, I have absolutely no experience with doing that, so I'd be ineffective. Also if my team had legitimate gripes, I'd probably side with them and put myself in jeopardy by caring more about fixing their concerns than productivity.

Nope, not for me.

[Rainman]

Great comeback, Aqua. They were probably frustrated that they couldn't jump on you like good SJW's.
Next time, try a tear or two. Just for effect. Especially when you mention HR and central administrators.

In our school district, all employees, teachers to janitors, had to take Diversity Training i.e., two days on white privelege. Administrators were to take a three-day all-day white privelege indoctrination.

And, all employees, especially teachers, were to bring this into the classroom, thereby "educating" over 17,000 students.

It was very weird, seeing all these people confess their sins. But in private, several told me in hushed tones, they found most of it to be absolute BS, but you had to pretend you were a full member.

[Loki]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Office Politics:

I enjoyed the performance Aqua especially because a good time was not had by all.